Bob Brooks, the Democratic nominee challenging Rep. Ryan Mackenzie in Pennsylvania's Seventh Congressional District, operated his lawn care company for more than four years without workers' compensation insurance, a mandatory requirement under state law that carries criminal penalties for every day of noncompliance.
State records reviewed by the Washington Free Beacon show that Brooks Lawn Care LLC canceled its workers' compensation policy on Nov. 30, 2017. The company did not obtain a new policy until Dec. 28, 2021. That gap spans more than 1,400 days.
Brooks's campaign did not respond to a request for comment.
Pennsylvania law is unambiguous on this point. Workers' compensation insurance is "mandatory for all employers who have one or more employees, whether they're part-time or full-time, including family members," according to the state Department of Labor & Industry. Businesses that fail to carry a policy face a $2,500 fine and up to one year in prison for each day without coverage. If the violation is found to be intentional, the penalty jumps to $15,000 and up to seven years in prison.
The records raise a pointed question: Did Brooks Lawn Care LLC actually have employees during the four-year gap? The evidence suggests it did. Austin Brooks, Bob Brooks's son, listed himself on his LinkedIn profile as a foreman at the company from May 2017 to August 2019, managing "six man crews." That window falls squarely within the period when the company had no workers' compensation coverage.
Whether any of those crew members were classified as employees or subcontractors is not addressed in the available records. But the state law's mandate covers all employers with even a single part-time worker, including family members like Austin Brooks himself.
The workers' comp lapse is particularly awkward for Brooks because he has placed Brooks Lawn Care LLC at the center of his congressional bid. His campaign website touts his blue-collar credentials in language designed to appeal to working-class voters in a district President Trump carried by three points in 2024.
"Whether plowing driveways at 4 a.m. or mowing lawns after a firefighting shift, Bob has never stopped hustling to provide for his family."
That pitch has drawn favorable media attention. Both Politico and Time published profiles of Brooks that zeroed in on the lawn care business as evidence of his everyman appeal. The endorsements followed: Gov. Josh Shapiro and Sen. Bernie Sanders both backed Brooks in the primary.
But the image of a scrappy small-business owner looks different when the business apparently skipped a basic legal obligation designed to protect workers from being stuck with medical bills after on-the-job injuries.
The workers' comp revelation is not the first time Brooks's record has collided with his rhetoric. As president of the Pennsylvania Professional Fire Fighters Association, a post he has held since 2021, Brooks successfully pushed for a 2024 state law expanding workers' compensation coverage for first responders suffering from post-traumatic stress injury. He advocated for the very kind of insurance protection he had failed to provide his own employees for years.
That contradiction sits alongside other recent stumbles. In May, Brooks publicly claimed that Gov. Shapiro had asked his union to back a Republican candidate for state treasurer in 2024 because the Democratic candidate in that race had opposed Shapiro as a potential running mate for then-Vice President Kamala Harris. Shapiro denied the claim. Brooks then retreated, saying he "misspoke and made an inaccurate comment."
Earlier this year, Brooks drew fire from volunteer firefighters in the Seventh District after posting on social media calling union firefighters who also serve as volunteers "scab[s]" and "s***bags." Several volunteer firefighters in the district spoke to the Free Beacon about the remarks.
One unnamed volunteer firefighter put it plainly:
"This guy is speaking poorly of good people."
Key questions hang over this story. No reporting indicates whether any employee of Brooks Lawn Care LLC was injured on the job during the four-year lapse. If one had been, the worker would have had no employer-provided coverage to fall back on, exactly the scenario workers' comp laws exist to prevent.
It is also unclear whether any Pennsylvania state agency has investigated or taken enforcement action against Brooks Lawn Care LLC for the apparent violation. The penalties on the books are severe. Whether they have ever been applied in this case is unknown.
Brooks's campaign has offered no explanation for why the policy was canceled in November 2017 or why it took more than four years to replace it. The silence is notable for a candidate who has built his brand on the business and who lobbied the state legislature to expand the very same category of insurance.
Pennsylvania's Seventh District is competitive territory. Republicans flipped the seat in 2024, and Trump's three-point margin there signals a district that leans right but remains within reach for Democrats. Brooks won his primary with high-profile endorsements and a working-class narrative built around his fire service career and his lawn care company.
Rep. Mackenzie, the Republican incumbent, now has a clean contrast to draw. Brooks asked voters to trust him as a small-business owner who understands the struggles of working people. The state records tell a different story, one in which the workers at Brooks Lawn Care LLC went unprotected, in apparent violation of the law, while their boss moved on to a union leadership role championing the same protections he had denied his own crew.
Voters in the Seventh District will decide whether that gap between Brooks's words and his record matters. But the facts are now on the table, and Brooks's campaign has chosen silence over explanation.
When a man runs for Congress on his record as a job creator and then can't explain why he didn't follow the law that protects the people who did the work, the pitch stops being compelling. It starts being a warning.
